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US Trip Series: THE AIRPORT March 18, 2006 (2200 hrs Manila)

This the day! I'm on my way to the airport, at centennial terminal of the Manila Airport to be specific. we had to be there for at least two hours earlier to make sure that we can board the plane on time. I'm late.... actually I arrived an hour earlier but this is the first time that I'm gonna ride a plane and I dont actually know how to check in. I saw my companion, Dindo, who is also my manager inside the check in area already.

The terminal is a little small so the guards had to check for my passport to see if I'm the one who's going to board and they won't let any guests come in.

So there we were at the check-in counter, we asked the information desk where do we go so we could get our seats and have our Luguage checked in.

But wait! I think there is something wrong, as i can clearly see the impression on the officers face, then the officer said "do you have your tickets with you?". All along I thought what the US office faxed us was enough for us to get into the plane but instead we needed to go to the ticketing office and secure our electronic tickets!

Thank God that there's a ticketing office inside the airport since the terminal was dedicated for PAL. As we rushed to the office and secure our tickets. The ticketing officer said that we should have secured the ticket days before just to make sure! Thank God the system was up so we had our tickets secured!

Just an hour left before the plane leaves we were able to check-in. At this point I was thinking that my lugauge was much fortunate than me because it doesn't have to get through all of the security checks before getting to the boarding area.

I had to pass through so many body search and everything before I got through and at the end of the procedure, I felt that I was harassed. I even lost my belt during the process. I was right thinking that I should have worn flipflops instead of shoes so I didn't need to take them off.

so there we were at the boarding area I called up my girlfriend because we wont be able to talk that much for about a week or so. It was kind of a mixed emotions I was telling her, "This is the first time that I would ever ride a plane and the worst part is that it is for about more than 12 hours! I don't Understand the way that I am feeling right now" I said.